Don’t Hate The Cop, Hate the Copping?

My cohost on the iSDaily Tuesday show, Bodhi Agora, recently went to Atlanta. During his visit, he took a ride on Atlanta’s subway system, called MARTA. He encountered an older man who appeared to have major issues going on.

The man accused Bodhi of stealing from him, and thus began a journey across MARTA trains that finally ended when a cop intervened. The article creates opportunities for dialogue about the nature of ‘policing,’ both in terms of the context of today, within the coercive enterprise paradigm and what it might look outside that paradigm.

The article also opens the door for another discussion, how do people who do not endorse the coercive enterprise model approach the main force enforcers of that model, the police?

Please be sure to read the full article and, if you’re on Steemit, make sure you upvote the article.

He immediately recognized the situation, that we were strangers, and this man meant harm… and he took action. No, it wasn’t another police brutality case. Quite the opposite. He stepped in and separated us from the asshole, effectively diffusing the situation and breaking the aggression, before it escalated. I was actually blown away by how well it was handled.

At this point we each told our stories, ours, you just read, his… an incoherent blather about me taking his money of an ever changing amount from a few bucks to $89. Needless to say, the officer quickly realized the man was not sober and clearly the aggressor.

He was arrested, without any real incident after some further questioning, for threatening us, violating MARTA policy. This lead to them finding drugs on him.

Paul Gordon is the publisher and editor of iState.TV. He has published and edited newspapers, poetry magazines and online weekly magazines.
He is the director of Social Cognito, an SEO/Web Marketing Company. You can reach Paul at pg@istate.tv